LM Wind Power, a supplier of rotor blades to the wind industry, has started delivering its first blades from its new factory in Bergama, Turkey.

The first blades left the Bergama factory in December 2017 and traveled 100km by road to the Izmir-Alsancak Port. In total, the Bergama team will ship 99 blades to their final destination, more than 14,000km away.

The 63+ meter blades will be commissioned on GE’s 3.43MW wind turbines at the Bodangora Wind Farm, a 113.2MW wind site developed by Infigen Energy and GE in South East Australia. GE’s turbines, equipped with these LM Wind Power blades, are set to capture the abundant winds in New South Wales.

The Bergama plant celebrated the start of production in July 2017. Ever since, the team has been hard at work to train every new employee to produce blades up to our global quality standards.

Bergama Plant Director Ozan Mamay said: “We’re very proud of our first shipment, as it demonstrates how far we have come in producing blades both theoretically and physically.

“Teamwork is the key to our success; the whole LM family contributed to the training and mentoring of our team. Our ambition is to create a learning organization going forward and respond to challenges together.

Now with more than 370 employees, the Bergama facility is the first new blade manufacturing site since the firm became a GE Renewable Energy business earlier this year.

It represents a $50m commitment to Turkey, creating skilled, technical jobs for the region, which range from manufacturing operations, to technical engineering, services, administration and ancillary support.

In addition to providing blades to wind projects outside of Turkey, the factory will address the needs of the fast-growing Turkish wind industry. Since 2010, annual new wind installations have continued to increase and sustained growth is predicted with a target of 20GW by 2023.